What was your first amp?

Dean Markley K-75 - like everyone else this is not my pic

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Horrible colour but pretty loud and actually sounded decent. The clean channel was pretty good but like most solid state amps the drive was terrible. It had a proper spring reverb though which was cool. In my first band aged 14 I used to think I was cool as hell hitting the amp in our last song with my distortion pedal and wah turned on so you got the large crash from the reverb tank.

I'd like to have a go on one now to see if it actually matches my memories of it.
 
My first was a FBT Jumbo 200 like this one (borrowed pic).

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A short time later in the late 80´s i got a Marshall Lead 12 combo with reverb that i actually still have but havent used for many years. (Borrowed pic again)

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Since the small Marshall combo hardly had any bass i used to stack them with the FBT in the bottom for more bass and the Marshall on top connected together though the line out of the Marshall, from what i remember it sounded pretty good that way.
 
That's a hell of a first amp!
I had been borrowing my dad's 70's Twin Reverb, and I kept complaining that it wouldn't do overdrive sounds. At first he got me a fuzz pedal. Still not what I was after. So, after a year of whining and begging, he broke down and got me the amp. Didn't hurt one bit that he and I were both players and he understood my frustration. Also didn't hurt that he was a doctor, lol. I've since purchased the rest of my amps myself. Many of which were funded by playing in bands.
 
My first „amp“ was a TurboRAT plugged into my stereo. If you think that early Darkthrone sounds like s**t - that is nothing compared to 15 year old me with the aforementioned first „rig“.
Actually before i had any real amp i used to plug into the family stereo, ha ha so you are not alone, this was probably more like when i was 12 rather than 15 because at 15 i had both the FBT and Marshall that i posted earlier and also a new Japanese made Fender strat which was my first good guitar and i still own that and the small Marshall. My first electric guitar was a crappy Harmony hard tail strat copy, i actually still have that one as well but its just as a memory it was always almost unplayable.
 
Within a few years got a deal on an Ampeg VT-22. That thing was a heavy pig but a fantastic pedal platform for my SD-9 and EH Small Stone, very very loud.

When I was in my mid 20's I bought a VT-22 and yes, it was heavy as hell. I was gigging in NYC and had to haul it up and down stairs in the subways of NYC. The absolute worst "grab-and-go" amp I ever had from a transportation standpoint but it had all of the volume I ever needed.

I was one of the musicians touring with Dancemobile and we were playing outside in the streets of Manhattan. No problem being heard no matter what the background noise was.
 
I can't even imagine trying to tote that around NYC.

It was bad enough in rural NE PA, or my high school.

I snagged a head version of the VT-22 in the early 90's. Quite a bit more maneuverable without those magnets on dual 15" speakers and the heavy cabinet.

Speaking of the cabinet - no casters/wheels - because who needs rolling casters with nearly 110+ pounds of combo amp with just the handle at the top, so no one can help you carry it?
 
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Well..my first amp I actually owned got burnt
to ashes, so no Polaroid from those days unfortunately fellas.
What’s interesting about me is, at first I did not know that you are supposed to use a guitar with a guitar amp.
If it had an input Jack and you said it was an amp,
I plugged in!

But this started a sorta’ ritual gone wild of plugging
into ANY amplifier, turning everything up all the way up and hammer out broken bits of heavy metalLed Zepplelin to Ac⚡️DC to Metallica & then land somewhere between
Jane’s Addiction & Smashing Pumpkins..
I would relentlessly just jam hard at the amp,
I did not understand equalization or gain, I was seeking them monster mutes’ coupled with the heavy hand & foot of John Bonham..
NOT the distortion.?
So I had few individuals around Holiday
FIRED UP at me.

My first amp that I mowed sand spur littered yards in Orangewood Estate’s in the
ruthlessly humid Florida weather,
-was the “Dean Ultra Gain”.
Me and two of my buddies hammered on it hard one night though & I was leaning hard into
heavy metal “Communication Breakdown”
in my Mom’s living room and apparently the
“Ultra-Boost” orange square sorta flexible switch
got jammed inbetween gears.
This sent that thing into BEAST MODE ULTRA
& that thing lit up for about 5 seconds
and then started smoldering..
Serioudly though, it sounded bad ass until it
changed form and melted out.
We were so stoked!!
My Mom..not so much, I had to pick up
oranges & grapefruits and mow that
Holiday, Florida sand spur turf for
6 f’n months dude’s!!

One of them many visit’s to the
ole’ school of hardknocks.
-the glory wasn’t worth the pay…

Long live METAL!!!!’
 
It was this piece of crap, a FAL Super 100, and I built a 2x12 cab with speakers from Tandy.
Well, it was 1972, I was 14 yrs old and hadn't got a clue 🤣🤣🤣
Edit.... This was my first electric guitar. An Eros SG copy. Through that FAL I made some thoroughly disgusting noises that really pissed off our neighbours 🤘🤘
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When I got that FAL I had no idea about tubes or solid state.. Aaah, the naivety of youth eh?
My next amp was much better, a Carlsbro
CS60 60 watt tube head. I also acquired a Laney 4x12.
Wish I still had that Carlsbro now, actually. 🤔
This isn't that actual amp, but it was the same as this.
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I don’t remember what it was but it wasn’t a guitar amp, it was a mono hi-fi tube amp that my mom bought for me at the Goodwill. Then my cousin gave me a Fender Blender and that’s what started it all for me 😀
This. Did its job surprisingly well (or so I thought back then :grin). After that it was a plethora of 80s / early 90s Crates, Peaveys, and some obscure brands I might only manage to remember in a deep hypnosis session. Brrrrrr... Traumatized for life.
 
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